Spitzer space telescope photographed Valentine's space rose The romantically configured astronomers working with the new NASA space telescope named Spitzer Space Telescope dedicated a new picture of the accumulation of newborn stars, which has the shape of a rose boton, the interstellar day of St. Valentine. These bright young stars are included in the NGC 7129 nebula and are located at a distance of 3,300 light years from the Earth in the constellation Cepheus.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga signed on Friday amendments to the law on education adopted by the Seimas, which provide for the transfer of schools of national minorities, including Russian, mainly to the Latvian language of instruction.

Interim Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Colonel-General of Militia Rashid Nurgaliyev has defined priority tasks for 2004 for internal affairs agencies, RIA Novosti reports.

Vice Speaker of the State Duma from the LDPR faction Vladimir Zhirinovsky said at the plenary session that only he is worthy to take the post of Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation. This is reported by Interfax. "Profanation, shame on any candidate other than me," he said, speaking on Friday in the State Duma during a discussion on the appointment of an ombudsman.

American journalist Rebecca Santana, who was considered missing in the North Caucasus for several days, may be deprived of her accreditation, Ekho Moskvy reports. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia is going to make a corresponding petition. They believe that Santana grossly violated the rules for the presence of journalists in the zone of the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. She did not register either in North Ossetia or in Chechnya.

Former German President Roman Herzog underwent emergency surgery in Hamburg, DPA reports. Last Thursday evening, he was taken to the hospital with acute pain in the stomach. As a representative of the clinic said on Friday, after a consultation held here, Roman Herzog underwent "an extensive abdominal operation." Doctors evaluate the general postoperative condition of the patient as "satisfactory", while recognizing that Roman Herzog "will still be in the hospital for quite a long time."

Barbie. From the site www.mattel.com The American company Mattel breeds Barbie with her eternal groom Ken, AFP reports. So the end came to the novel of 43 years. Now Barbie will have a new boyfriend, whose appearance and name will be solemnly released in the fall of 2004, and poor Ken will have to be pleased to the role of "just a good friend." He will not be removed from production.

Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. Photo from the site www.lenta.ru In the capital of Katar, Doha exploded a car in which the ex-president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Zelimkhan Yandarbiev rode. A close relative of Yandarbieva informed one of the Internet publications of the separatists that Yandarbiev "became a marty", and his son Daud is in serious condition. The two of them returned after Friday prayer from the mosque. There were only two in the car.

Class B0218+357, the smallest system of gravitational lenses from discovered at the moment (www.jb.man.ac.uk/research/grav Currently, many examples of observations of galaxies acting like "gravitational lenses" are already known. The rays of the light, passing next to them, deviate a powerful gravitational field.

On Thursday evening, a murder was committed in Moscow, Gazeta.Ru reports with reference to Interfax. In the area of ​​house number 6 on Obvodnoye Highway (the territory of the Kuntsevo police department), an unknown criminal shot two people. This happened around 22:15. One of the victims died on the spot, the second was seriously injured. The paramedics are now trying to save him. According to preliminary data, both killed and wounded - people from the Caucasus.

A catastrophic situation with teaching staff may arise in the Moscow education system in 5-6 years, Lyubov Kezina, head of the Moscow Department of Education, told Interfax. It is reported by "Echo of Moscow". According to Kezina, "today 17.4 percent of teachers working in educational institutions of the city are workers of retirement age." "After some time, they will still be forced to retire, and then a catastrophic situation with personnel may arise in the capital," Kezina said.

During the debate of the parties in the Savelovsky court on the "Aeroflot case", the prosecutor asked to sentence the defendants to imprisonment for a term of 4 to 8 years, RIA Novosti reports. The main defendants - Nikolai Glushkov and Alexander Krasnenker - were asked by the prosecutor to be sentenced to imprisonment in a penal colony for eight and five and a half years, respectively.

The presentation of the new kit of the five-time world football champion - the Brazilian national team - was held on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro, RIA Novosti reports. Finished in the traditional green and yellow colors, the new Brazil official jersey weighs 155 grams (instead of the 188 grams of the official 2002 World Cup kit). Compared to the old jersey, the use of green has been reduced to a minimum in the new jersey, limited to collar piping, sleeves and side panels.

A tiger has died of bird flu at a zoo in Thailand, Reuters reports. This was announced by the Minister of Ecology of the country Prapat Panyachatraksa. The final conclusions about which particular strain caused the death of the animal will be known later. The tiger died on January 27th. On February 13, the results of preliminary tests became known. So far, it has been found out that the animal had no contact with birds that carry the disease.

At the entrance to the Bosporus on the night of Thursday to Friday, the Russian cargo ship Strontium ran aground on its way to Greece. According to ITAR-TASS, the Russian ship anchored due to the fact that the Bosphorus is temporarily closed due to heavy snow and storm winds. A strong side wind began to demolish a 100-meter vessel with a displacement of 2.5 thousand tons to the shore, where it ran aground.